Pandora Papers Show Canada Has Done Little To Stop Money Flowing To Offshore Tax Havens, Analyst Says

From the Toronto Star: Canada has for decades turned a blind eye to wealthy individuals who use offshore accounts in international tax havens of the kind exposed in a massive leak of financial documents this week, according to a tax policy analyst.

• The Pandora Papers, leaked this week, follow the Panama Papers leak of 2016.

Forty Canadians were named in the Panama Papers, but not a single charge has been laid against them, says the Star.

• The Canada Revenue Agency assessed $29 million in taxes and penalties related to the 2016 leak, but could not confirm to the Star if any of that money had been returned to public coffers.

“There’s been a lot of talk but not a tremendous amount of action,” Toby Sanger, executive director of Canadians for Tax Fairness, told the Star. Sanger said this is proved by the Paradise Papers, which show that money continues to flow to tax havens from Canada.

• Canadian direct investment dollars in the world’s top 12 tax havens reached $381 billion in 2019, according to a Canadians For Tax Fairness report published last year based on Statistics Canada data.

“Canada has been a facilitator and has helped create tax havens,” Sanger told the Star. “For many decades we essentially turned a blind eye to those things.”